As you may or may not remember, a few weeks back I made the trek down to Chicago for the annual Printer’s Row Lit Fest… for a very good reason. My online friend, Justin Bog (remember when he stopped by this blog last year for an interview?), was going to be in town to speak on a panel about Short Stories–in honor of the publication of his collection in Sandcastle and Other Stories.
He has family living in the Chicago area so I got to meet his twin, sister-in-law, sister, and niece, and we spent a lovely afternoon enjoying the snail’s pace of service at the local Bar Louie.
We were so absorbed in interesting conversations we forgot to take any pictures to mark the event.
😀
He was back again this week for a different, sadder family reunion to honor his parents’ passing. And was gracious enough to ask Joe and me down for the family bar-b-que today. In honor of another great afternoon’s worth of conversation, you finally get the pictorial evidence I DID collect those several weeks back:
(For evidence from today… you’ll have to ask him. They’re all on his iPhone.)
😀
So… I’m thinking again about my own writing plans, since this week kicks off the next ROW80 round. Because I am pushing to make sure the final in the first Red Slaves trilogy is out by year’s end, and that extra chapter I wrote about last week really did give me a great launching point for book 3, I actually started writing this week. Not much, and class begins again 7/8, but I know where I’m starting. I’d like to use this ROW80 round to take a big bite out of my planned word count–even though I’m not sure this class won’t also have weekly 5-10-page paper requirements… That does tend to slow down my fiction writing. I’ll post my full list of goals and progress toward them next Sunday, crossing my fingers that my next class isn’t quite the time consumer the past two have been.
Meantime, there’s a holiday this week, the weather’s beautiful (and unseasonably cool), so I’m very much enjoying the calmer pace of no classes. I hope you are too. 🙂
It was a kick meeting you twice, Tonya, and your husband too. What a great family. Now to get our mutts together! See you again in Dallas!
Its cool to meet up with internet pals. Brave new world in here. Good luck on the writing.